


Making Lemonade

by Vyc



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Cardassian Culture, Cardassians, Drabble Collection, First Meetings, Fluff, Kisses, M/M, Protectiveness, Relationship Growth, Romance, Smiles, Snow, Teasing, Winter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-26
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-01-13 19:45:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1238641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vyc/pseuds/Vyc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of romantic drabbles featuring Julian Bashir and Elim Garak.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Impression

**Author's Note:**

> It's been years since I last attempted to write strict drabbles, and since then, I feel I've grown quite a bit as an author. That said, sticking to exactly one hundred words is _hard_.
> 
> I have no idea how many of these I'm going to write--the list I'm working from has two hundred prompts, but I seriously doubt I'll fill all of them.

He needed to make contact with a Starfleet officer. If he wanted to end his exile, he needed to prove his usefulness. Any officer would do, of course, but why not choose the most attractive person in the replimat? Why not bring himself a scrap of pleasure?

His selection, a Dr. Bashir, proved to be even more naive than most. By day's end, he'd pulled Bashir into an intrigue, promised to make him a new man with one of his suits.

He had no way of knowing that he'd begun a relationship that would make new men of them both.


	2. Beautiful

Sometimes it was strange to think about how much his sense of aesthetics had changed. Before, only women had attracted his attention: tall, curvy, glamorous.

Now his breath caught and his heart skipped at the sight of one Cardassian man. When he wore a tunic that called attention to the small of his back waiting for Julian's hand, when his hair was not quite perfectly arranged, when he looked at him with amusement as the first layer and love as all the others—he couldn't get his head around it.

The rest of the time, it wasn't strange at all.


	3. Mock

He and Garak can be sarcastic with one another, and that's fine. That's how Human friendships and Cardassian relationships work. 

What isn't fine is catching sight of Dukat strutting into Garak's shop, neck arched in what Garak calls "gavrUn."

He charges after him, and even if he doesn't have the ridges to _gavrUn_ , he has his height and knowledge of Cardassian culture to tell him how to be as effective as possible.

It's touch and go, but Dukat backs down and swaggers off with poor grace. Garak dryly calls Julian his knight, but the kiss he gives belies his tone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The concept of gavrUn ("gahv-roon") is courtesy of [tinsnip](http://archiveofourown.org/users/tinsnip/)!


	4. Smile

Julian has never met anyone with so many smiles as Garak. Most people have two or three—four at most—but years later, Julian is still cataloguing them all:

There's his neutral smile, a default expression.

There's his amused smile, where he gives his conversation partner time to realise they've said something ill-advised.

There's his predatory smile, promising intimacy the moment he and Julian are alone.

And, rarest of all, caught only in glimpses, is the soft smile that makes Julian think in terms of years, not months. That's a smile he tries to inspire more than all others combined.


	5. Feather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julian and Garak in the snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's time to update this again. Once again, I struggle with the one hundred-word limit. I can feel myself growing as a writer already....

It's too warm in the holosuite for snow, really, but Garak threatened to leave if he turned down the temperature. It'll have to stay as-is.

They stand together in a pine forest clearing. The flakes catch on Garak's facial ridges, melting into the gaps between scales; it's one of the most adorable sights of Julian's life.

"I still don't see the attraction of standing out in the cold," Garak complains.

"It's not the cold—it's the warming up later."

He touches a snowflake-light kiss to Garak's cheek. When Garak smiles beneath his lips, he can feel summertime glow within him.


	6. Tease

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The way Julian and Garak tease each other has changed over the years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I enjoy challenging expectations for prompts. :D

Early in their friendship, Garak often amused himself by seeing how outlandish he could make his falsehoods and still have Julian swallow them. The answer, unfortunately, had once been "extremely."

But Julian has grown during his time on DS9, in ways he never suspected he needed to. Now the game has changed: he's taken to seeing how completely he can make his friend (and, recently, partner) believe he's swallowed the stories he's being fed.

The answer, lately, is "not nearly as much as before." But the half-lidded smiles he receives when he's discovered mean he doesn't much mind losing ground.


End file.
